I'll probably be looking to be playing a fighter/tanking class, any suggestions on build? (I've never played this before so correct me if I'm assuming anything)

Fighter = Champion.
Tanking = Guardian.

Captain is a nice middle ground of goddamn fucking everything except for ranged attacks, but I enjoy it immensely as it's allowed me to practice every possible bit of being a Fellowship/Raid member without having a restrictive specific class.

There's also Wardens. They are built more as an offtank though, taking care of lots of not-as-hard hitting mobs. The devs admitted that they were inspired by the spartans from 300 when designing the Warden.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment unveiled today The Lord of the Rings Online™: Rise of Isengard™, the latest expansion to the award-winning free-to-play massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) developed by Turbine. Rise of Isengard will expand the online world of Middle-earth where players will join forces to press further eastward into the legendary region of Isengard. Rise of Isengard will be available for purchase in the LOTRO Store in the Fall of 2011 with an increased level cap, the new region of Isengard including the legendary tower of Orthanc, enhancements to monster play and much more!

“2010 has been a year of unprecedented growth for The Lord of the Rings Online with our successful introduction of a free-to-play option for our players,” said Kate Paiz, Executive Producer of The Lord of the Rings Online. “This is going to be another outstanding year for the game as we progress on our journey toward Mordor and it all begins with our upcoming November update. The journey will carry through 2011 ending with our arrival in the epic region of Isengard where players will confront the raging war and shadow that has spread across Middle-earth.”

NEW FEATURES
[list][*]Experience the Rise of Isengard – The Epic Story continues as the Grey Company makes its way south into Dunland, but troubles arise as their road takes them into lands where Dunlending forces, marshaled by the Wizard Saruman, prepare for war. The Rangers must seek new allies and face dangerous new foes, chief among them the traitor Saruman, whose web of intrigue threatens to endanger your quest, your friends, and your life.[*]Increased Level Cap — Players will be able advance their characters up to level 70, gaining access to new traits, virtues, skills and class quests. [*]Expanded Monster Play – LOTRO’s monster play system will get a major revamp including opening up the feature to all players, changes to monster player skills and advancement and a brand new region for players to battle for or against the forces of evil. [/list]

Getting closer to Gondor/Rohan, I like it. Does this mean Mines of Moria will be F2P as I heard rumoured before, or no? I've been tempted to buy it now that I'm level 49 and getting close to the standard cap, and also I'm going to need Legendary Items if things keep up.

Getting closer to Gondor/Rohan, I like it. Does this mean Mines of Moria will be F2P as I heard rumoured before, or no? I've been tempted to buy it now that I'm level 49 and getting close to the standard cap, and also I'm going to need Legendary Items if things keep up.

No idea about Moria getting free. Although you can still do Tasks. And if I'm not mistaken, you will get a legendary weapon and access to the full system as it is a part of the epic books - which is free.

How does monster play work? Someone explain to me please and I may consider upgrading sometime in the future.

Give me an hour or so.

Edited:

When you first click the monsterplay button at the main screen, you are taken to a new screen where you chose one out of the 6 characters: Uruk Warleader (buff, healing, tanking), Uruk Black-Arrow (range DPS), Orc Reaver (melee DPS), Orc Defiler (healer, debuffer), Warg Stalker (stealth, melee DPS) and Spider Weaver (melee/ranged DPS, debuff & utility).

You are then transported to the starting area of the bad guys - Gramsfoot. You start out at max level but rank 0. You advance and get better by killing other players.

Here you see me. A rank 8 (out of 15) Black-Arrow. There are 3 tiers of different maps to get around easily. You gain them by completing a series of quests at each stronghold. The higher tiered map, you'll end up at a better spot and the map got a shorter cooldown. There's also a map back to base. But you get that one from the start.

To the left in green you see the most important feature a new player should focus on. These are your passive stats. The ones filled in with yellow are those you start with. The reds are ones bought. These are class specific so as a new BA you will 3 yellow blocks and 2 empty red boxes in the Damage bar. In comparison, Warleaders can never get 5 Damage.
I actually numbered those wrong. It should be 0, 1, 2, 3, 4. Which represents the rank you are able to buy new levels for your passive skills shown in that window.

The currency you use to buy stats, skills and appearances for is DP, Destiny Points. You are awarded these when completing quests and when killing enemy players. This is server wide. So if you earn 100 000 DP with one of your monsters, you can spend them on your newly created ones too. Even on your good characters!

Here I show you the store in which you buy your skills and abilities. I'm down to my last passive now which I will get on my next rank. After you've completed the first batch of passives at rank 4. You start another one at rank 5. Here you get more detailed passive increases, which in my case means ranged damage, ranged criticals, power regeneration and something else I forgot.

To the right you see my war tab. Here I can track my progress and weep over the mountain of Infamy I must accumulate.

The questionmark is a bit of a bitch. The base Infamy/Renown rewarded is 100. And it is multiplied by the victim's rating. So if you kill me 1v1, you should gain 134 Renown. I'm not sure how Rating is awarded. You gain when you kill and lose when you die.

Here I'm killing some freeps. Everyone that took part in killing this poor bastard get a percentage of damage done rewarded in Infamy.
Within groups and raids, Infamy is split between everyone regardless of ones involvement. You usually are down to about 5 per kill. But in massive raid fights you can easily get 3000-4000 in a few hours.

Highest ranked creep on our server.

Killed by the highest ranked freep (free people) - Etheldar.

I hope this was helpful. If you got any questions I'm here to answer them.

You need VIP to access monsterplay. Buy one month of game time and you are set to go. If you feel that it isn't really your thing, you don't have to continue your subscription.
And once your sub runs out, you will be a Premium member permanently.

You need VIP to access monsterplay. Buy one month of game time and you are set to go. If you feel that it isn't really your thing, you don't have to continue your subscription.
And once your sub runs out, you will be a Premium member permanently.

Could you give me a link please? The website is absolute crap for buying stuff. I'm from the UK aswell.

Using the same password and username but it won't work. If i try to register it takes me to the LOTR register which I know I did since i'm playing the game.

Edited:

Found out now. I had to go onto the Turbine account and upgrade from there. However the link you gave me, it couldn't even find my account name and when I went to sign up, it said my username wasn't taken.

"We are expecting delivery of the new build next Tuesday and therefore until we have had the opportunity to test and verify the new code we won't be able to firm up any launch dates. Assuming there are no critical problems with the EU version, we are tentatively targeting a 7th December launch date."